How to import photos into iNaturalist Next

If you would like to create new observations from photos already on your device, you can do that by importing them into iNaturalist Next. Here's how.

1. Access your photo gallery by either a) opening up the AI Camera and tapping on the gallery icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen or b) if you're using the all observation options setting, tap on the plus symbol then tap on gallery icon.
   
   
2. Select up to 20 photos from your gallery to be imported into iNaturalist and tap "Add". It's OK if the photos document different organisms.
   
   
   
3. Next is the Group Photos page. At the top you will see how many photos are in this batch and how many observations will be made from them. By default, each photo is treated as a single observation, but if you took more than one photo of an individual organism, those will need to be combined into a single observation. 
   
   You can do that by selecting photos you want to combine. For example, the first two photos here show two sides of the same snail and should be combined.  
   
   
   
4. Once you tap on one or more observations, you will now see this menu at the bottom of the screen. From left to right, the icons mean:  
   1. Combine the selected photos into one observation.
   2. Split combined photos apart (not available in this situation)
   3. Remove selected photos from the import batch
      
      
      
5. If you choose to combine the photos, you will see a stack icon on the Group Photos screen, and the number of observations being made from this batch of photos decreases by one, because two photos are now used for one observation. You can combine up to 20 photos to make one observation, but remember to only do so if they depict the same organism from the same encounter.
   
   
6. Continue combining photos if necessary. When you are finished here, tap on on the green "Import X Observations" button. In this case, 7 observations will be made from the 9 photos that were imported.
   
   
   
7. Now you can add an identification to and edit each of the observations in the batch, using the Observation Edit screen. Note that the app shows you how many observations are in the current batch, and which of those observations you are currently editing. Once you press Save or Upload Now, the observation will be removed from the batch and you will be shown the next unsaved observation in the batch.